


Loved By Deities

by Sinnatious



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Animal Transformation, Gen, Identity Reveal, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Rescue, Time (Linked Universe)-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24216835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinnatious/pseuds/Sinnatious
Summary: The scariest tool at Time's disposal is the Fierce Deity mask. The second scariest is Nayru's Love. And he'll use every tool he has if that's what it takes to keep his boys safe. Linked Universe fic.
Comments: 81
Kudos: 712





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Still on Linked Universe bandwagon, so vomited this thing out which wound up way longer than intended. This particular foray was born out of a mix of me needing more Time angst and Time BAMFery, and the frustrating childhood memory of activating Nayru's Love at a bad time and discovering I suddenly couldn't cancel it, not even by taking it off the c buttons.

They’re in a forest grove in Twilight’s Hyrule, somewhere in the Zora Highlands. The air is crisp, a touch too cold to be comfortable, and the sound of running water seems omnipresent. It’s an odd place for a portal to drop them, especially as things appear peaceful. On the plus side, Twilight has assured them all that his Hyrule isn’t facing any ongoing threats, so any trouble will be easily spotted.

With no pressing issues at hand, they’re taking a moment to regroup from the battle just fought – a messy skirmish with a horde of lizalfos that had occurred just before the latest world switch. They’re out of fairies and red potions, so Hyrule had offered to heal up the nasty cut on Four’s sword arm. Which of course, had spurred on a conversation about magic, and because it’s them, it’s become a competition. _Everything_ is a competition when things are quiet, but Time just sits back and lets them at it. It builds comradery, and they learn more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses this way than any other method they attempt.

Wild shrugs. “I used to have some impressive spells, but since defeating Calamity Ganon, I can’t use them anymore.” He perks up, pulling out his Sheikah Slate. “I have this though-”

“No objects! That’s cheating,” Wind protests.

“Then you can’t do any wind magic either, brat.” Warriors elbows him.

Wind scrunches up his face. “…Fine! Items are okay, but if it doesn’t use your own strength, it doesn’t count.”

“Hands up anyone who has ever had to chug a green potion?” Legend declares, looking around. Half of them grimace, Time included, at the memory of the taste.

Sky smiles at that, caressing the Master Sword fondly. “I suppose that counts me out, then. It was all her, really.”

Warriors flexes an arm, as though physical muscles were just as good a metaphor for magic. “My Focus Spirit mode is pretty powerful, if you’ve ever seen it-”

“How different is that to what Wild does when he focuses?” Twilight jibes.

“What about you then, farm boy?” Warriors retorts.

Twilight shrugs it off. “I’m not really one for magic. Though if I could have any, Traveller’s healing magic clearly takes the cake over your Focus Spirit hocus pocus.”

“ _Hocus pocus?_ ”

“What about you, little one?” Time prompts Four, who has been keeping quiet as he admires his now fully healed arm. It serves to distract Warriors and Twilight from getting into a wrestling match.

“Oh, my magic is a bit too unconventional to compete with that,” Four admits. “If Sky is out, I am too.”

Wind folds his arms. “I can command the power of _cyclones-_ ”

“Traveller can do more than just heal, though can’t he?” Sky asks, curious. “Though he’s the _only_ one who can heal, so that’s remarkable on its own.”

They all look to Hyrule, who ducks his head. “Ah, yes, but I think Legend’s magic is much more impressive…” he demurs.

Legend rolls up his sleeves and cracks his knuckles. “Let me tell you about magic…”

Everyone groans, except Time, who saw this coming. “He is our resident sorcerer, after all,” he quips. “I’m not sure what anyone expected.”

“What about you, Old Man?” Twilight says. He seems to have decided that if he can’t compete, he’ll at least champion anyone other than Legend to keep the competition going. “You’ve got some pretty impressive spells of your own.”

“Hardly. They’re not much use in a group.” If he leaves the songs and masks and sword techniques out of it, which seems only right if Four and Sky and Twilight and Wild have all conceded. “Din’s Fire doesn’t discriminate. And Farore’s Wind wouldn’t do anything more than separate us.”

“There’s Nayru’s Love though,” Twilight presses. “I think that’s the strongest protection spell any of us have, right? Even Traveller’s shield isn’t complete invulnerability.”

“Wow, really? I’ve never seen it. Old Man, show us!” Wind bounces in place, excited.

“I’d like to see it too,” Warriors chimes in. “If it’s really so impressive, prove it! Let’s see if it can hold up against my Focus Spirit!”

A slow thread of panic curls around his throat, threatening to choke off his words. By long experience, Time fights it back, and keeps his expression easy. “Ten years ago, perhaps. But I’m too old to be casting that sort of magic on a whim now. I’m afraid both Traveller and our sorcerer have me beat.”

Legend scoffs. “Don’t give me that, Old Man. Magic potential only goes up as you get older. That’s why all those old sages are strong as shit, right?”

Time shoots him a look that intends to prompt him to drop it, but Legend just grins wider. He’s doubling down specifically _because_ he’s noticed that Time’s uncomfortable.

“I’ve already conceded,” he says, and inwardly cringes at how tight his voice comes out.

“Aw, come on Old Man, don’t be such a spoilsport,” Legend wheedles. “I want to see how it matches up against the Cane of Byrna.”

“I really wanna see too!” Wind adds enthusiastically.

Even Hyrule gives him a guilty look and admits, “I’m pretty interested in seeing what such a powerful shield looks like, especially one that doesn’t use an item. Maybe we can learn from it?”

“I don’t get why you wouldn’t use something that strong all the time,” Four remarks. “Imagine not being able to be hurt at all. Does it use that much magic?”

Twilight casts him a glance. He, at least, has picked up on his souring mood. “I think the drawback is it works both ways, right? While it’s up, you’re limited in what you can do.”

“It would be so handy for running away though!” Wind points out excitedly.

“What if you jumped off a mountain?” Wild wonders. “You wouldn’t even need a paraglider.” He looks wistful, in a way that suggests it’s a probably a good thing he doesn’t have access to such magic.

“What if it faded before you hit, though?” Sky shudders. “How long does it last anyway? Just until your magic runs out?”

“That’s how my Cane works,” Legend offers. “You don’t have to leave it up until you’re dry, Old Man. Just for a second. Two seconds, if the captain really wants to show off his Focus Spirit Hocus Pocus.”

Warriors takes exception to that. “Hey!”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Time protests. His mouth has gone dry. He won’t react. He won’t. They can’t understand. They don’t know what they’re asking.

“Then how _does_ it work?” Wind asks, bright-eyed. It’s just curiosity.

“The Old Man is always like this,” Warriors complains. “Won’t join in with a spar, won’t give us a straight answer to any question, won’t even cast a harmless spell.”

Time’s patience snaps.

“I don’t use it because I’m never sure if she’ll let me out again,” he says, stands up, and stalks off.

Some part of him is aware of the group falling silent behind him, but he’s out of earshot before he can hear if it holds. He walks until he finds the source of the running water – one of the smaller creeks that feeds into the Zora river.

He chooses a tree by the bank, sits under it, and takes a deep, long breath.

It was unnecessarily harsh of him. He’ll have to find a way to apologise to them later – maybe he can schedule them a rest day, see if they can visit Ordon or Kakariko or Hyrule Castle Town. Somewhere Warriors can get drunk and the young ones can play at a shooting gallery and they can all sleep on proper beds for once. He might need it too, he reasons. There were so many better ways he could have handled that. It’s rare for him to let a situation slip so far out of his control.

Legend won this round, in more ways than one.

He closes his eye, focusing on the sound of the breeze rustling the trees and the soothing white noise of the creek. He’s never put the fear into words before, not even to Malon, and the stark honesty of it has left him rattled.

Time is no stranger to being fought over by Gods, to the feeling that his body, his fate, does not belong to him. He’s been a Kokkiri without a fairy. A Hylian with one. A child with an adult’s body, then an adult with the body of a child. Hylia brands his hand with the Triforce. The Fierce Deity brands his face with his markings.

The Great Fairies have recently taken to calling him ‘Nayru’s favourite’. Even Zelda had alluded to it, when she handed him the Ocarina of Time once more. As if it were a blessing. As if it weren’t terrifying.

His quiet reflection isn’t allowed to last long – it’s only some minutes later when the rustle of undergrowth heralds someone approaching. He doesn’t turn to look – experience tells him by the gait and size it’s a Hylian, so likely one of the boys come to check on him and make peace. A few moments later, he’s proven right as Twilight awkwardly approaches.

“I’ll go back soon,” he promises, “I just need a few minutes to collect myself.”

“No it’s… it’s okay. Everyone is sorry, you know. We didn’t realise, we thought it was just…” Twilight fumbles to say.

Time turns his face away. “I know.” After an awkward beat of silence, he hears Twilight sit on the grass next to him.

He isn’t surprised when the question comes. Has braced himself for it, from the minute he foolishly opened his mouth. “What did you mean, about that spell?”

It would be easy not to answer. They won’t press it any further, he knows, not after he stormed off. There’s always a delicate game of push and pull among them when it comes to sensitive topics, and on the rare occasion someone has stumbled across an invisible line, they’re all quick to retreat from it.

It’s Twilight, though, and he can never quite bring himself to brush him off.

“I’ve only used that spell twice since I married Malon,” Time says. “The first time, I used it because I was pinned down by a horde of beamos. It seemed an easy way to handle the problem.”

Twilight shifts uncomfortably next to him, but doesn’t break his silence.

“And it was. I cleared the beamos with plenty of time to spare. Except the spell didn’t fade.”

He’s only told this story once before, to his wife, but the details remain ever vivid in his memory, the slowly building panic as he stared at the world through the fractured light of a crystal, grasping for magic out of his reach, for his ocarina, for _anything_ that might put an end to the spell. After the initial cast, Nayru’s Love didn’t draw on his magic. It had always just faded after a minute or so, though some part of him had distantly noted that it had been creeping up, lasting a just a little longer than he expected every time. It had been easy to put that down to him growing older, and his magic power slowly growing stronger as a result. Until suddenly he was staring at a sunset through the sheen of blue crystal, wondering what had gone wrong.

“It lasted for hours, for no apparent reason. It faded on its own, eventually. But it left me wary.”

Twilight clears his throat. “And the second time?”

Time raises a hand, and lets it drift across his blinded eye. “When I got this.”

Despite himself, Twilight leans forward. Time knows it’s a point of morbid curiosity among the boys – it wouldn’t surprise him if they’re running a betting pool over the story, much like they had over his wife.

“I had avoided the spell, after what happened the previous time. But I was half-blinded, injured, and panicking, and there were still enemies to deal with. So I used it.”

He lets out a shaky breath, so that his voice at least will be steady. “This time, the spell didn’t fade for three days.”

Three days in agony, with blood caking his face, with the Fierce Deity’s marks still burning, where even once every threat had been beaten down with nothing more than his sword he couldn’t get away, couldn’t use Farore’s Wind to escape or a song to spirit him to safety, to a Great Fairy fountain where he could have had healing or a temple within reach of a town with food and potions.

It had nearly killed him. There had been nothing for him to use his hookshot on, so he had dragged his injured and broken body out of the pit he’d nearly died in with determination alone, had limped for two days in desperate search of a fairy, any fairy, any succor at all.

Nayru’s Love hadn’t faded until he’d stumbled in sight of the Desert Colossus. And by then his eye was long past even a Great Fairy’s power to save.

He hasn’t cast it since.

The only one Time ever wants to belong to is Malon.

“Shit,” Twilight murmurs.

Time is tempted to chide him for language, but he rather shares the sentiment. “Indeed.”

“Yeah, uh, so it makes sense why you don’t use it. We are really sorry, we didn’t know,” Twilight hurries to say, then pauses, brow furrowing. “Wait, but you didn’t say how your eye in the first place got-”

“Apology accepted,” Time interrupts breezily, pushing himself to his feet and brushing the grass from his legs.

Twilight scrambles to feet after him. “But Old Man-”

His protest is cut short, as a horrific sound suddenly pierces the quiet of the forest. It echoes, shrill and unrelenting - something between a screech and a roar, and it shivers down Time’s bones like the scream of a Redead.

Twilight has gone pale. “No, it can’t be-”

It came from back at their camp. “Quick, to the others,” Time orders, hand already on his sword as he retraces his steps.

He slows as he approaches, peering through the trees for the source. Twilight is mere steps behind him. He’s nearly back at the clearing when he spies a dark figure skulking through the trees. He slips back, tracking its movement. There’s four others, as well, which he spots a moment later.

They’re not a creature he’s ever seen the like of before. They’re the stuff of nightmares - spindly, grasping threads of darkness in place of a head, slick, black skin patterned with geometric tattoos, cracks of glowing red light on their chest, and a metal shield for a face. The largest one has a face plate of gold, but the others look like dull iron. They move like something organic while everything about them feels artificial, unnatural. All the worse is how easy it is to see what _power_ is coiled in that form, with every loping stride and hulking step. They move fast, too. Deceptively so.

Twilight grabs his arm, pulling him further back. Time goes easily, until they have more distance on them. “You recognise these?” he whispers.

“Shadow beasts,” Twilight gasps. “It shouldn’t be _possible_ that they’re here. The way between realms is closed.”

“A good many things shouldn’t be possible on this adventure,” Time says, grim. “And yet, they occur anyhow. Anything you can tell me about them?”

Twilight is visibly rattled, but he’s a fighter, first and foremost, and pulls himself together. “You have to kill them all. As fast as you can. If even one is left… they’re like stalchildren, but worse. They’ll just keep coming back.”

Troublesome, especially since there’s only two of them and five of the enemy. There’s no sight or sound of the others yet, and that’s worrying.

“The big one is leaving,” Twilight notes in a murmur. “We should wait until it goes. I never saw any with gold face plates. The ones I fought were all iron. There were some elite ones, I think – silver ones – but I never had to fight those.” He peers from their cover at the hulking beast. “It’s… a lot larger than any others I ever faced.”

So they don’t know quite what to expect then. That’s par for the course on this miserable adventure. Hylia wouldn’t bring all nine of them together otherwise.

They don’t have to wait long – the gold-faced one heads off with alarming speed, leaving the four iron-faced beasts prowling the forest. It looks like they’re searching, which doesn’t bode well. Time hefts his sword, and shares a glance with Twilight, who draws his own with a nod. Wordlessly, they split apart.

Twilight has doubtlessly managed more than two on his own before, so it’s going to be up to Time not to mess it up.

As soon as they’re spotted, the creatures growl, not running so much as _slithering_ towards them. He keeps an eye on Twilight as they engage, splitting them apart, careful attacks to test their reflexes, quick steps back as he dodges, luring two away.

He can spot it, the moment Twilight adjusts his grip on his sword, a faint zip of magic running the length of the blade. It’s a move Time thought he himself had invented, but it stands to reason that he must have passed it down, that somehow it made its way to his ancestor. The thought sends a wave of warmth through him. He does the same himself a moment later, lets the beasts draw in close, then in tandem, lets loose a spin attack.

As one, all four collapse to the ground, silent. A moment later they seem to dissipate, spreading like tar then evaporating into unnatural cubes of darkness, leaving behind no sign they ever existed. Unnerving.

“The others,” Time says, and Twilight nods. The sound of battle should have drawn them, even if the first shriek somehow didn’t. The two of them rush through the forest, until they arrive back at their temporary camp.

The clearing looks like a warzone. There are scorch marks on the ground, and torn earth, and most worrying of all, no sign of their comrades.

“No…” Twilight looks around with a broken expression.

Time bends down, picking up a bag. It’s Legend’s. Hyrule’s is next to it. A short distance away, he can see both of their weapons, dropped on the ground.

They’d been caught unawares then. Disarmed and dragged off before they could put up a proper fight. The scorch mark is probably from Legend’s Fire Rod, which he can also spy in the grass a little further away.

The Master Sword is lying next to it. His heart skips a beat in worry for Sky. He _treasures_ that blade, and would never leave it behind, or unattended, willingly.

“They were taken?” Time asks. There is no blood, no bodies. The creatures didn’t have mouths. Kidnapping is only thing that makes sense.

“Probably. The first time I came across these guys, they tried to kill me, then threw me into prison instead.” He shivers. “How many must there have been, though, to get everyone? We weren’t gone that long.”

“See if you can find anything else,” Time says. He tracks around the outer edge of the clearing, and finds Wind’s sword as well, but no sign of his bag. Hopefully that means he’s kept it, so they have at least some tools at their disposal. There’s no sign of Warriors’ sword, either – only the Fire Rod.

There’s a rustle of leaves in the tree above him. Time glances up, out of habit, checking for threats, and pauses at the sight which greets him.

“Wild?” he asks.

Wild blinks blearily down at him. There’s blood running from a wound on his head, painting the scarred half of his face red. Time swears under his breath. “Twilight! A little help over here.”

He jogs over as Time begins to eye the branches and question whether they’ll hold his fully armoured weight, but doesn’t have to put it to the test as the instant Twilight sees what he’s looking at, he scrambles up the tree like a… not exactly like a cat, but more a very determined wolf.

“Old Man, I’m going to let him down, you got him?”

“Go ahead.” Time steps back to bear Wild’s weight as Twilight lowers him by the arms. Wild’s making a pained face, which hints to hidden injuries, but there’s nothing to be done for it. They can’t help until he’s back on solid ground.

Time lays him down. Wild is conscious, but he seems to be having trouble focusing. He checks the head wound while Twilight makes his way back down to earth.

“Is he okay?” Twilight asks, dropping to his knees next to him.

“The blood makes the wound look worse than it is, but head injuries are tricky.” He shakes Wild by the shoulder. “Cook, you with me?”

He blinks, slowly. “Old Man?” he slurs.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Wild’s face tightens at the question, but Time is well wise to the tricks of his boys by now. With careful, prodding fingers, he checks each of his joints, then his arms and legs. His bow arm is badly scratched – it looks like a bow had broken mid-draw in his hands, and knowing Wild that could very well be the case. It would explain why he’d been in the tree, as well.

It’s not serious though, and wouldn’t normally merit any treatment beyond a bit of cleaning. When his fingers reach his side though, Wild winces. There it is.

Time pulls up the blue tunic to inspect the damage. No broken skin, but a large patch of his chest and side is already an angry red. If they’re lucky, bruising is all it is. If they’re unlucky, he’s broken some ribs. Like the head injury, there’s little they can do for it.

“Is it bad?” Twilight asks.

“Certainly it’s not good. Normally I’d want him to use a fairy or a potion, but we were out of those to begin with. And now our traveller is missing too with his handy healing magic. Is there any source of fairies or potions nearby?”

Twilight winces. “The closest Spring is Eldin’s, which is near Kakariko. It’s a long ride from here, even longer without a horse… and we’d have to cross the Bridge of Eldin to get there.”

Time thinks on it. The landscape has changed somewhat, of course, but he knows these mountains and these rivers, at least. “I thought Kakariko a good deal closer than that.”

Twilight looks confused for only a moment. “Oh! You must be thinking of the Hidden Village. I heard it used to be called Kakariko a long time ago, until they moved to the current one.” He grimaces. “If there’s a fairy there, good luck finding them.”

It’s disconcerting being in a Hyrule so familiar yet so alien. “We’ll handle it without magic, then.” To Wild he adds, “You’ll have another scar to add to your impressive collection, I’m afraid.”

Wild huffs, holding a hand to his head. “At least it won’t stand out,” he murmurs. His eyes are tracking him properly now, which makes Time hopeful that the head injury might be a mild one after all.

They don’t have potions, but they do have water. Time sets to cleaning the wounds, talking as he works. “So what can you tell us about what happened? Do you know what happened to the others?”

“They snatched up Hyrule and Legend before we even realised we were under attack,” Wild murmurs, wincing as Time dabs carefully around the wound. His words are halting, but slowly becoming stronger – he doesn’t sound half-drunk anymore. “I didn’t see where Four went, but the rest of us all fought back. I took a few bad hits before I managed to kill the creature I was fighting. It gets a bit fuzzy after that. But I know I climbed the tree to try to snipe the ones carrying the other two off.” He pauses, clearly struggling to gather his thoughts, as Time wraps a makeshift bandage around his head wound. “But then… just when we were about to win, the last one let out this awful sound… and suddenly they were all back, like we hadn’t done anything at all.”

The scream they’d heard. One of the shadow beasts reviving its brethren, then.

“I don’t think the others were prepared for it. They got overwhelmed, and last I saw they were carrying them off, the same way they did the others. I tried to shoot them, before they could get away, but then my bow broke. I’m sorry, I tried…” Wild’s voice breaks on the words.

“You’ve got nothing to apologise for,” Time hushes him. “You were ambushed by a strange enemy. Twilight explained how they worked to me. There wasn’t anything more you could have done.”

“But it’s not right that I escaped, and they-”

“I’m just glad we’ve got one less person to rescue, and one more person to help us do the rescuing,” Twilight cuts in easily, dropping a hand on Wild’s back. Their cook relaxes slightly under it, and Time hums in approval.

He ties off the bandage as best he can, and rinses the cuts on Wild’s arm with the last of the water. They’ll have to refill before they move on.

“We’d best gather all their things. They’ll want them back once we find them,” Time says, then pushes Wild back down when he goes to stand. “You, sit. I’d rather we didn’t have you move for at least a night, but since I doubt we’ll have that luxury, I’ll settle for you resting as long as we can spare.”

“I’ve had worse,” Wild says, poking at his head bandage experimentally.

“We’ve all had worse, but that’s no reason to push our luck,” Time chides. He goes to fetch the Fire Rod, and beckons Twilight. “The Master Sword, if you would.”

Twilight heads over to it. “You’re still not comfortable with this blade?”

“I have my hands full already,” Time says, which everyone present knows is an excuse, but Twilight ducks his head – because he knew better than to ask.

Twilight pauses a few steps away from the Master Sword, though, staring at… his feet? He crouches down, then starts swearing to the three Goddesses in a way that would have turned Sky purple. “Uhhh, guys? I think I found our smithy.”

Time stows the gathered bags and weapons and makes his way over to where Twilight is very slowly and carefully rising to his feet. “What do you mean?”

“Just… look.” He holds out his hands. In them sits what at first glance seems to be an ordinary field mouse, except Time has never seen one with such unusually golden fur, or mismatched blue and green eyes, or with a purple-tipped tail and bright red feet.

Wild peers at the strange mouse sitting tamely in Twilight’s cupped hands with a look on his face that suggests he thinks he might have taken a harder hit to the head than he thought. Time, on the other hand, is no stranger to transformation – and cloaked though it is in strange magic, there is little doubt in his mind that this odd critter is Four.

“My my, little one, you continue to surprise me,” he says with a smile. The unusual mouse squeaks at him, and he wonders if the Mask of Truth would be able to translate his words.

“Uh, I don’t think… I don’t think he did it on purpose,” Twilight says in a rush.

“Pardon?”

“The shadow beasts did one of two things – they either killed you, or turned you into one of them. And not just Hylians, Twili were victims too.”

“The others?” Time asks, alarmed.

“Well, they won’t turn into shadow beasts, I don’t think. I didn’t,” Twilight says. “But if the kid here is any indication, they might be cursed into different forms.” He gently lowers his hands to a fallen tree trunk, and the mouse dutifully scurries onto it. “Because we’re all… you know, _us_ … it gives us a measure of protection, so the curse doesn’t work quite right.”

Concerning, and something to keep in mind. “We’ll deal with that as it happens.” Such a small form had no doubt let Four escape unnoticed, but it could have just as easily lead to him being crushed underfoot in the following battle. “Is there a way to turn him back?”

“The Master Sword should do it. Come to think of it, maybe he had the same idea… he was heading that way when I found him in the grass. Sorry, little guy.” The mouse squeaks loudly. Twilight fetches the Master Sword, and lays it next to him. The mouse scurries up to it, and one blinding flash later, Four stands before them once more.

“By the Goddesses that was weird!” he exclaims, patting himself down.

“Anything amiss? No injuries?” Time prompts.

“No, I got… transformed, I guess, for lack of a better word – maybe cursed? – pretty early in the fight. I uh… I have a bit of experience with being that tall, so when I woke up I got out away from the fighting as fast as I could.” He turns on Twilight, and pokes him in the chest. “Didn’t think to warn us about that, _Wolfie_?”

Twilight holds up his hands in defence with a nervous smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Oh come off it, everyone here knows already,” Four dismisses. “And I bet the rest will guess real quick if they go through that.”

“Right,” Twilight sighs, then pauses. “Oh, our sorcerer will be…” He covers his mouth, seconds too late to hide his grin.

“What?” Time asks. It seems a strange moment for levity.

Twilight appears to know it, as he struggles to put his serious face back on. “He’s transformed before, when subjected to this kind of curse. He’s uh… he’s probably a pink bunny, right now.”

Time raises an eyebrow. “Truly?”

Twilight swallows a laugh, poorly. “Yeah. He was distraught that even I found out.”

“A bunny. Really? That guy?” Four asks sceptically.

“If we shoot him does he drop rupees?” Wild wonders.

“We’d best not let him suffer that fate for long, then,” Time cuts in, before their speculation can run out of control. He hopes the idea is mostly due to Wild’s head injury.

“Wait! This thing dropped, when I changed back.” Four moves to pick up a small black crystal in the grass.

“Be careful with that!” Twilight warns. “That’s what the Master Sword turned the curse into. Don’t touch it unless you want to be a mouse again.”

Four shudders, snatching his hand away. “Ugh. Really? No thanks. This feels like dark magic.”

“Because it is,” Time says. “But we deal with the hands we’re dealt. Dispose of it or keep it, up to you.”

“Get rid of it,” Four says firmly.

Twilight shrugs, and shatters the crystal with quick flick of the Master Sword. “One of these is enough, anyway.”

It’s on the tip of Time’s tongue to say even one is too many, but that would be the height of hypocrisy, and it’s really none of his business anyhow. “This has improved our odds, at least,” he remarks. “The next matter is pursuit.”

“I can track them, probably,” Twilight offers. “But we should go soon. The trail won’t last forever.”

“We don’t want to leave them waiting longer than necessary, either.” Time nods. “We’ll gather everyone’s things, refill our water, and get moving as soon as we can. Not you, Cook.” He points at Wild, who is again in the process of rising to his feet. “If you don’t want us to carry you, you’ll stay there until the very moment we’re ready to leave.”

Wild guiltily sinks back down.

“I’ll get the water,” Four says, grabbing up the waterskins and scurrying off towards the creek. He at least seems none the worse for wear for his ordeal.

Twilight sighs, ruffling his hair. “I guess this means the cat really is out of the bag…”

“Or perhaps you mean the wolf?” Time quips.

“Augh! Old Man!”

“He’s right you know, everyone here is all aware, and you’ve said the sorcerer is too. Keeping it a secret now is just excluding the few not in the know,” Time points out.

“I know, I know. I just wish… well, that it wasn’t like this.”

“I suspect that there is no right time for such a thing.” He slips Legend’s and Hyrule’s bags over his shoulder, and hooks the Fire Rod onto his belt, along with their swords. The Sheikah Slate is nearly always at storage capacity just with their provisions, and Legend is always dubious about storing anything enchanted in it. He doesn’t want Wild carrying anything extra, and Twilight will have to transform into a wolf so that leaves… Wind’s sword, and the Master Sword.

He’ll simply have to bear it. The sword is nearly as tall as Four is – he can’t ask him to carry it. He fetches Wind’s Phantom Sword first. The hourglass, as always, catches his eye, something about the magic of the blade snagging on his senses. He has his suspicions, but he hangs them on his belt with it. He doesn’t want to poke that particular hornet nest if he can help it.

Then he sighs, and holds out his hand for the Master Sword.

Twilight pauses. “Are you sure? I can carry it as Wolfie. I have before. I just have to wrap the blade so it doesn’t force me out of that form.”

“It’s fine,” Time lies. “Hand it over before I change my mind.”

Twilight does, slowly and carefully.

Time wishes he could say he feels nothing when he grasps the blade. But the back of his hand tingles, and he feels a wave of warmth wash through him, like a hug welcoming him home, the whisper of promises and apologies and wishes in his ears.

He hangs the sword on his back and pretends his skin isn’t crawling. Pretends the marks on his face aren’t suddenly burning.

Time is fought over by gods, and he’s lost a friend, lost an eye, lost _years_ to the struggle. But he’ll be damned if he backs down in the face of it, just because of a little discomfort.

It’s not all bad, he tells himself. At least between this whole fracas, and Twilight’s flimsy secret being revealed, everyone has forgotten about his walk out earlier.

Four comes back into the clearing in short order, and promptly breaks out into a grin at the sight of him. “You’re like a pack mule, Old Man! Sure you don’t want me to carry some of that?”

“It might be better to leave at least one of us unencumbered to fight,” Time replies. “So we’ll be relying on you to keep us safe, little one.”

Four’s smile widens at that. “You got it.”

Still, the weight of half of their party’s inventory in addition to his own is significant. He’s lucky they’re going to have to take it slow for Wild’s sake anyway. Hopefully they’ll come across a roaming fairy, or some chus they can turn into potions, and he can share some of the load. Hand off the Master Sword, at least. “Is that everything, then?”

“I couldn’t find anything else,” Twilight says. “Think that’s probably it. Did you see if anyone else got left behind, Wild? Maybe someone turned into a frog?”

“Very funny,” Four says with his arms crossed.

“You know, your form tends to say something about you,” Twilight comments, ruffling the shorter boy’s hair. “So it _is_ , in fact, pretty funny that you turned into a mouse, squirt.”

Four bats his hands away. “You can’t get me with that! Being small is great! It’s super useful! Way better than a _wolf_.”

Twilight just laughs it off, but there’s a faintly insincere note to it. “Yeah, well, I suppose that means no one is scared of you, at least.” He seems to realise that came out more honest than he intended, so quickly follows with, “Because they’d have to be able to _see_ you to be scared of you right?”

“Lots of people fear mice. Malon shrieks up a storm every time she sees one,” Time remarks. “But that’s all irrelevant. We should be getting on our way. How are you feeling, Cook?”

Wild all but leaps to his feet, fails to hide his following wobble and wince, then gives them a thumbs up. Time sighs, but there’s nothing to be done. “Lead on then, if you would, ‘Wolfie’.”


	2. Chapter 2

They follow Twilight’s wolf form for hours – at times doubling back when he presumably lost the trail, but largely heading southwest. It’s rough cross-country walking, since the shadow beasts hadn’t cared to use roads. Despite his protests that he’s fine, Wild is definitely moving slower than normal. At this point, Time would normally drop his pace and complain about his back or his old bones to get him to take it easy, but laden down with everyone’s gear as he is, he’s already _at_ that pace.

Four saunters along next to them, keeping an eye on the weaving, searching path Wolfie is making in the distance. “You doing okay, Old Man?”

Time blinks at him. “Pardon? I think you should be asking our cook that.”

“I _know_ what’s wrong with him. But you’ve been frowning for over an hour now. Worse than usual, I mean.”

The right side of his face aches fiercely, and has for hours. It will for hours yet. “Just a bit of a headache. Nothing to worry about.”

“Hrm. Maybe it’s time for a break, though.” Four doesn’t bother asking either of their opinions, just calls ahead to Twilight. “Wolfie! We’re stopping for a bit!”

Twilight comes bounding back towards them. He shifts back as he gets close, worry etched on his face. “Is everything alright?”

“Just letting the two old men take a breather,” Four says with a grin.

“Hey-”

“You’re _one hundred and seventeen_ years old, technically. You _might_ even be older than the Old Man.”

Wild thinks about it, then shrugs. Then winces.

Perhaps a break is in order anyway. Time carefully sets down his excess inventory, starting with the Master Sword. Just putting the sword down is a relief. A mistake, perhaps – Time isn’t going to want to pick it up again – but he’ll make the most of the reprieve. “In that case, I’ll take a toilet break.” And maybe find a stream to splash some cold water on his face. It won’t fix anything, but the thought of it is soothing.

Twilight nods. “Okay then. I’m going to patrol the perimeter a bit, see if I can pick up anything else. There’s been a few more misleading trails since we passed that grotto earlier.”

Time is about to remind him that he would do them no favours by pushing himself, but before he can speak up, Twilight has transformed back into a wolf and gone loping off. He’s fast in that form.

He sighs, and glances at the others. “You two will be alright here for a few minutes?”

Four waves him off. “Of course! I’ll make sure our beloved cook doesn’t overexert himself.”

“Very well.” He heads into the trees. It doesn’t take long to find a creek – though more accurately, he finds a small waterfall, as it drops off a short but steep cliff into a lake and a small valley. There’s not much to look at though, so he spends only a moment admiring the view before doing his business and washing his hands in the refreshingly cold mountain water.

Something moves in the undergrowth behind him.

Time pauses, for just a moment, but then smoothly and naturally rises to his feet, shaking the water off his hands and deftly tugging his gauntlets back on. He focuses simply on listening, keeping his movements casual, but the white noise of the waterfall makes it hard.

Just wildlife? He turns to head back to where Four and Wild are waiting.

Then a shadow beast is barrelling out of the trees towards him, and slams into him full speed.

Time doesn’t even get the chance to draw his sword. He tumbles to the ground, his armour taking the brunt of the impact, but then shadowed, long-fingered hands are grasping at his throat, and then dark magic, sickly and _other_ washes over him and there’s only pain and pain and _pain_ -

He struggles, blindly, and then they are tumbling, falling – the cliff, the valley, some part of him distantly notes. They land hard, and Time can breathe again, and he rolls to the side, trying to get some distance, _any_ distance, to get his bearings. Then suddenly there is snarling and growling and snapping teeth and… ah, Twilight has caught wind of the battle and leapt into the fray.

Time shakily gets to his feet, though something is wrong, something off with the motion. It reminds him of the first steps he took after leaving the Sacred Realm, or when…

The shadow beast disperses into the ether, thoroughly bested by Twilight’s wolf form. Time goes to offer his thanks and then realises he has no voice.

Oh. Twilight had warned them about this.

He’s been turned into a white wolf. A large one, and his coat gleams with the golden light of the Triforce. Hylia’s mark writ over his entire body.

He looks back to Twilight. Just a pup, to this form. He’s whining, eyes wide. After a moment, he seems to remember himself, and transforms back into his normal body.

“It’s ok, it’s ok, you’re alive! You’re still alive, right?” He seems to be panicking. He reaches out, as though to run a hand through his fur, but his fingers hover just above it, as though afraid to touch. “You just have to… that’s right, the Master Sword. Back with the others, right? I’ll just…” He wavers. They’re at the bottom of a cliff. It’s not a very tall one, but in this form, without hands, climbing it is probably impossible.

Of course, Twilight would be able to manage it just fine, but he seems agonised at the idea of leaving him alone, even though he’s uninjured and the threat is already dealt with. Time can _smell_ the distress rolling off him. Interesting. Can Twilight tell this much normally?

It’s irrelevant. Time won’t leave any of his boys distressed, and if he can do this without the Master Sword, all the better. He settles on his haunches, drawing from the well of magic within. He’s been through this before. He’s been a deku sprout, against his will, and then later again out of need. He’s been a zora, been a goron, been a giant, been a god. A wolf is no different.

The ocarina would make it easier, but a few tentative huffs later, he begins to howl the Song of Healing.

The magic swells within him, and the curse begins to leech from his body, returning him to normal. As the last notes of the song die in his throat, he’s released, crouching, and a mask drops to the ground in front of him.

The mask isn’t a proper wolf’s face – the snout is flatter, rather like his Keaton Mask. It’s coloured white and gold, and the swirls of paint on it are reminiscent of the mark on Twilight’s forehead. He can feel the faint echo of the curse that transformed him sealed within it. Dark magic, but nothing more sinister than many of his other masks. He slips it into his bag with the others.

Twilight is staring at him with the sort of awe one normally reserves for Great Fairies. There are tear tracks down his face.

“There was no need to worry,” he says, even as he wonders at the reaction. He hadn’t been nearly so bothered when he discovered Four as a mouse.

Twilight seems to remember himself, hastily scrubbing an arm over his eyes. His voice is still shaky though. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what… That… that song.”

The Song of Healing.

Twilight has made no secret of his broken heart. He makes jokes of it, though, so none of them have been too inclined to take it seriously, no more than Warriors’ tales of love gone wrong. For the song to have affected him this seriously though… perhaps the grief is deeper than they guessed.

He reaches over, and lays a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’ll play it again for you sometime, properly. I find it’s helpful when time alone doesn’t bring peace.”

“No, it’s just… there was just a lot. Uhm. I’m just relieved you’re okay. That the curse didn’t hurt you. You uh, you’ve taken it pretty well, actually. Even better than the squirt did, and he was my new gold standard.” Twilight is babbling, a habit he tends to fall back on to cover awkwardness.

Time lets it go. The song is not a cure all, after all, especially not for the living, and there will be other opportunities. “We should get back to the others. In case that shadow beast wasn’t alone.”

“Oh. Right. Uh, I found another one in the woods while I was patrolling, and took it out, before I picked up the trail for this one. I guess this means we’re getting close to where they’ve gone.” The cliff is covered in vines, so at least it is an easy climb once they both have opposable thumbs. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? I caught up right when you went over the cliff.”

“I don’t wear this armour just because it’s shiny, you know. I’m fine.”

They come back to the camp to Wild pointing a bow at the them and Four with his sword drawn. They both visibly relax when they realise it’s them.

“What happened? We heard howling and thought the worst,” Four asks. “I was _this_ close to going after you two.”

“Sorry. We were attacked. It’s all been taken care of, though,” Time promises.

“Was it ever! Hey, squirt. Guess what.” Twilight drops his elbow on Four’s head, like it’s an armrest. “The Old Man got cursed in the fight. And he’s a wolf, like me!”

“Whaaaat, no way, really?” Four looks strangely betrayed by the notion. “You’re not even that alike!”

“Jealous?”

“No, a mouse is great! Push off. It’s much better than a stinky-” He looks at Time, suddenly realising that he can’t fall back on insulting Twilight without also insulting him, so quickly amends, “You just can’t appreciate the perspective of a mouse! They’re survivors in a world much bigger than them. Think about it, ochus are the size of a mountain to them!”

“Okay, so maybe I have sold mice a little… _short_.”

Four gives him a flat look. Time finds himself relaxing. Twilight, it seems, will be perfectly fine.

“No fair, everyone else has transformed. What’s my form? I want to find out. Twilight, let me borrow your crystal thing,” Wild demands, holding out his hand.

“No one is intentionally cursing themselves with dark magic,” Time declares. “ _Especially_ not people with serious injuries.”

“Spoilsport,” Twilight mutters under his breath, then grins innocently at the look Time sends his way. If Time hadn’t seen it for himself, _smelled_ it for himself, he wouldn’t believe how distressed the pup had been mere minutes before.

It’s a valuable skill, in their type of adventures, to be able to shrug off upset and continue as normal. Breakdowns can happen later when it’s safe and the job is the done. It’s a mantra Time himself is well familiar with. But it’s odd to see it in others. He’s no longer so sure he approves of it.

Wild huffs. “I’m not hurt _that_ bad. You guys suddenly won’t let me do anything.”

“The Old Man is right, save your strength,” Four says, and Time is grateful to have at least one somewhat mature ally with him. “We don’t know how much further we have to go.”

“Actually, I think we might be close,” Twilight says, “Considering we found two of them just roaming around.”

Time steels himself, and starts picking up everyone’s bags and weapons again. His fingers hover over the Master Sword for five long seconds before he manages to force himself to pick it up. Luckily, if anyone notices, they don’t say anything about it. “Let’s not keep them waiting, then.”  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Twilight winds up leading them to a hole in the ground. He digs at it until it’s wide enough for all of them, and leaps into the darkness below. Time ties a rope to a nearby tree trunk for the rest of them to climb down.

He’s shifted back by the time all three of them make it there. “This is a Lantern Cavern,” he murmurs, and starts digging through his bag for something.

That something turns out to be an oil lantern. When he lights it, the warm glow just barely reaches the edge of the small cave they’re in. There’s some sign of hylian-made structures on the walls, wooden scaffolding of the like you’d find in a mine, though they’re so old they seem almost fused with the dirt and rock.

“I’ve never been in this one,” Twilight confides. “But if it’s anything like the others, it would be an ideal place for any rogue shadow beasts to hide out. I don’t have a lot of oil, though. Hopefully we can find the others before it runs out, or we might wind up fighting blind.”

“Oh! I’ve got a lantern too!” Four says, going through his own things, and producing one with a candle. With a quick shake, he lights it, and with the second glow added to the first, they can now see the cave clearly. “But the flame is magic. It never runs out! Well, unless I get it wet…”

Twilight stares at him in open jealousy. “Really? _Never_?”

“It hasn’t yet, at least.”

“I know I said I didn’t much bother with a lot of that magic stuff, but this is starting to feel very unfair. The fanciest thing I ever got was an enchanted set of armour that’s too expensive to ever wear. And it weighs a ton so I can’t even bring it with me.”

“That hawkeye mask you have is pretty neat,” Wild pipes up.

“And it still doesn’t help me shoot better than _you_.”

“Stay on task,” Time warns. “If the trail led here, there’s no doubt more shadow beasts about.”

Four considers the lantern, then hands it off to Wild. “I need my hands free if we have to fight. Don’t break it.”

“No promises,” Wild says, but takes the lantern with special care regardless.

There’s only one exit to the cave, so they press on carefully, Twilight leading the way with Wild guarding their rear, giving them maximum coverage with the feeble light the lanterns provide.

“I just don’t get it, though,” Twilight mutters. “She destroyed the mirror, it shouldn’t even be possible. But if it is, why would she do this? _Is_ it her doing this? What if she’s in trouble?”

“What are you talking about?” Four asks.

Twilight shudders. “Just… thinking aloud, sorry. I know, I know, Old Man, you don’t have to say it. Stay focused and all that.” He raises the lantern a little higher as they move into the next cavern. It’s empty, like the previous one, but this one seems to branch into multiple corridors.

“Some kind of map would be handy,” Time muses.

“I doubt there is one. And these cavern networks don’t tend to be _that_ large.” Twilight peers down the closest exit. There’s not much to see, however – it just disappears into inky darkness.

“Is this near the ocean?” Wild wonders.

They all pause at that. Wild tends to think a bit sideways compared to the rest of them, but this is left field even for him. “Nowhere even close. What makes you ask?” Twilight replies.

“I thought I heard seagulls. That way.” He gestures vaguely at the corridor to their right.

Time listens carefully. Now that he’s paying attention, he can hear it too.

For lack of any other ideas, they might as well investigate. The orange circle of light they’re in grows tight as they enter the corridor, bobbing with the gentle clink of lanterns. The sounds are getting louder, which means they’re on the right path.

As they get closer, they start to hear the unnatural growls, too.

“Shadow beasts,” Twilight curses, hooking the lantern onto his belt in favour of his sword. If they’re fighting, that can only mean one thing.

The scene they arrive at is bizarre, though. There’s a lone seagull after all, flapping frantic circles around the roof of the cave, above a single flaming torch, while two shadow beasts growl and leap and swipe at it. But how did a seagull wind up trapped inside a cave in the Upper Lanayru Region?

Time sees the strange tuft of yellow feathers on the seagull’s head, and abruptly understands. “Over here!” he calls to it.

The bird turns mid-air clumsily, squawks as it narrowly avoids a swipe of a shadow beast’s hands, and speeds towards him. Four and Twilight leap forward, engaging and swiftly defeating the two shadow beasts, as Time suddenly has a seagull flapping wildly in his face.

“Settle down, you’re safe. We’ve got you,” Time tries to soothe it, though the gull can’t seem to figure out how to land. A long history of wrangling cuccos kicks in, and he manages to gently grab its feet, then cradle it in his hands. The gull is small, and fits easily once it realises it’s no longer falling. He can feel its heart thumping rapidly beneath his thumb.

“Who are you, then?” It’s one of their missing comrades, almost certainly, and he only knows it’s not Legend. The seagull chirps at him. It’s an expressive little thing, and terribly cute, much like Four’s mouse had been. “Don’t worry, we’ll have you turned back in a moment. Cook, if you would?” He holds the gull out. Wild sets Four’s lantern down to take him, and Time unsheathes the Master Sword from his back.

“To break the curse. All you have to do is touch it,” he coaxes. He would use the Song of Healing, now that he knows it works, but given Twilight’s reaction to the song he’s not certain he would appreciate him doing so.

Tentatively, the gull extends its wing until his white feathers brush the blade.

There’s a flash of light, Wild yelps, and Wind hits the ground in front of them with a thump.

“Owwwww,” Wind groans. “Did you have to drop me?”

“Sorry,” Wild offers sheepishly, and Time’s gaze zeroes in on how he rubs tentatively at his ribs. “Caught me by surprise.”

Wind seems to have already forgotten it. “Hey, it worked! I’m back to normal!” He leaps to his feet in excitement. “That was _so_ weird!”

“Are you alright? No injuries?” Time asks.

Wind stretches his arms. “No, nothing serious. Mostly just tired. Flying is really exhausting, you know?”

Their first bit of good news so far. “You’ll be wanting this back, then,” Time says, holding out Wind’s sword. The youth’s face lights up at the sight of it.

“Thank goodness,” he breathes, and takes it from him. “Thank you for taking care of it.”

The sword feels like it snags on him as it leaves his grasp, like little invisible hooks caught in his magic that want to bring it along. He frowns, but shakes it off. “We would hardly leave it behind.”

“It’s good to have you back,” Four says, slapping him on the back as they re-join the group. It appears this cavern is a dead end.

“A seagull huh?” Twilight jibes with a grin.

Wind eyes him suspiciously. “Yeah, what about it?”

“It fits, is all. Feels like I should have guessed it.”

“Keep your comments to yourself, _Wolfie,_ ” Wind warns. “I can’t believe you never told us! I had to hear about it from that cranky sorcerer. Who is not happy, by the way.”

“Is he ever?” Wild mutters.

Time catches that. “You know where the others are?”

“Yeah! Well, sort of. But I think Legend is still with the captain. And I know where Sky is! They were going to put me in the same place when I escaped. I’ll show you the way. Come on!” Wind scampers ahead of them, then pauses impatiently while he waits for the lantern-carriers to catch up.

“I think they didn’t know exactly what to do with us at first,” Wind chatters as he leads them back to the previous chamber and down the one next to it, which also splits. He takes the right passage, which winds steadily downward. “Whatever that curse that transformed us, it was supposed to do something else, and when it didn’t, they brought us here? Then they left us alone for a little while, then made us all look into some mirror thing, but I don’t think it did anything, or maybe they didn’t know how to use it. Then they took Traveller and Sky away and they were taking me away too when I got loose. They don’t seem that intelligent, it’s probably something or someone else giving them orders.”

“That’s about the right of it,” Twilight confirms. “To normal people, that curse just turns them into shadow beasts.”

“What an awful enemy,” Four comments. “Every loss just makes them stronger.”

Twilight’s gaze grows distant. “Yeah… I thought I’d seen the last of them. I’m looking forward to beating up whoever brought them here. Oh.” He pauses, thinking. “Maybe they came through a portal themselves? Because I wasn’t kidding – there’s no way they can be in my Hyrule. But if they came from an earlier time, or a different Hyrule before the mirror was destroyed…”

“It’s likely. Too much of this is by design. For so many different time periods to be facing these strange threats – this is no natural phenomenon,” Time agrees. They’ve all known it for some time, but they’ve long been stumped on precisely what enemy could even do such a thing. The obvious answer is an incarnation of Ganon, but it’s not his style. Ganon invariably seeks out Zelda, seeks out the Triforce, and any power he seeks along the way is only ever a means to that end. This threat, this puppetmaster… they’re far more subtle. Despite repeated skirmishes with their underlings, they’ve not yet figured out the goal.

Strangely, Twilight looks disappointed by the revelation. “I guess I won’t see her after all then,” he murmurs.

Before anyone can ask, they emerge into the next cavern. It’s vastly larger than the others so far, and the walls are old, cracked stone instead of wood, with the occasional torch set on the walls. These are proper ruins, then, though despite the nagging sense of familiarity Time can’t place them as anything he’s seen before. The room is split in half, a dark chasm separating them from the other side, the wall torches and lantern light too weak to let them see the bottom. The ceiling arches high above them, and hanging from it above the abyss are half a dozen rusted cages.

In the one furthest from the entrance lays slumped a hawk, wings askew, its feathers a brilliant red and gold. It keens weakly at the sight of them.

It is almost certainly Sky. He doesn’t look well.

“How are we supposed to get him down from _there_?” Four sighs. “This is going to be some awful puzzle, isn’t it?”

“The cage is metal, right?” Wild pipes up. “I could drag it over with magnesis…” As he holds out the slate though, his face falls. “…if it wasn’t out of range.” He stretches his arms out over the edge, tilting the slate every which way, as though that might somehow cross the distance.

He’s giving Time anxiety, so he grabs him by the collar and gently pulls him away from the edge. “It’s a fine idea if we can shorten that distance, at least. And I think I see how.” He points at the cage to their right – locked behind it is a winch that is almost certainly used to raise and lower the cages.

Twilight rattles the door. “It’s sturdy,” he reports. “I don’t think we can break it.”

“If it needs a key, there’s one all the way over there.” Four points to the other side of the room, across the chasm. There is, in fact, a key lying on the floor. “No idea how we could get over there, though.” If they can’t reach Sky from here, reaching the other side of the pit is impossible. It is far too great a distance even for his hover boots. Maybe with Wind’s magic at his back… but no, then he wouldn’t be able to get back.

Twilight is staring thoughtfully at the wall of the room. There’s a small decorative ridge that runs flush with the floor, and it crosses the chasm to the other side even where the floor falls away. It’s not even a hand’s-width wide, and Time dearly hopes he’s not thinking of using it to climb across.

Then he says, “Hey squirt, do you think a mouse could get across that?”

Four stares at him, and asks, “Are you serious?”

“Completely. Can you do it? I can lend you my shard.”

Four peers at the wall. “I guess… I don’t really like the idea of mucking about with that kind of dark magic, though.”

“It’s safe, we have the Master Sword. This is even safer than before, really.”

“Wait wait wait, you turned into a _mouse_?” Wind asks, excited.

“He sure did.”

“Let’s do it,” Four decides, holding out his hand for the crystal. Neither of them ask Time whether he thinks it’s a good idea, but he’s hardly going to stop them when he doesn’t have any better suggestions. “Don’t think this is going to become a habit, though. This is the last time.”

The transformation goes smoothly, and the golden mouse is scurrying across the ledge on the edge of the chasm in no time. The speed at which he does it has Time’s heart in his throat, but Four is either fearless or the tiny ledge is much more substantial to a mouse. He picks up the key in his teeth, and scurries back across. Time obligingly lays the Master Sword on the ground long enough for him to turn back.

It all goes remarkably smoothly. Time idly wonders how much easier any Temple trial would be with their combined talents and tools. He’s certain that if it were just him, he’d be stuck searching for secret passages to the other side for hours.

“That was so cool!” Wind enthuses once Four has returned to normal.

“Being small _is_ handy,” Four says smugly as he hands the key over.

“It sure is,” Twilight agrees with a grin. He opens the cage to the winch, gives it a close look over, then rolls his shoulders. “Let’s give it a go and see what happens.”

The winch creaks and squeals in protest, but under Twilight’s strength, slowly but surely turns. Sky’s cage gradually lowers from the ceiling, his hawk form watching them intently with dark eyes. It lowers, and lowers, until it’s ground level with them and then just… stops. It’s still out in the middle of the chasm.

“Wild?” Time prompts.

Wild holds out his slate and groans. “It’s close! If it were just a little bit closer to the edge…”

Time considers it. If it’s only a little… “Young one, you don’t happen to have your Deku Leaf, by any chance?”

Wind catches onto his suggestion immediately. “I’m on it!” He pulls the leaf out of his bag and readies himself by the chasm’s edge.

Even then, the chain likely won’t be long enough to pull the cage to safety. There’s rope, though – a short length of it tying the chain to the cage. He points at it to Twilight. “Can you hit it?” Ideally that would be Wild’s job, but he’ll be needed on the slate. Twilight is their next best archer.

He peers at it, then nods. “I’ve got it.” He pulls out his bow, and readies the shot.

“Here goes. Brace yourself, Sky!” Wind calls out, then swings the leaf.

A powerful gust of wind bursts from it, enough to make them all stagger half a step. Sky screeches in surprise as the cage goes swinging wildly, and the ones closer to the ceiling rattle and shake.

Twilight times it, and at the apex of the swing back towards them, lets loose an arrow. It severs the rope cleanly, and in the same instant, a lasso of red light shoots out from Wild’s slate. It snaps onto the cage, and then he carefully draws it towards them and gently lowers it to the ground.

The cage is far less sturdy, and the lock doesn’t put up any fight to Time’s Biggoron sword. Wind reaches in and carefully bundles the hawk out. “Got the sword?”

“Right here,” Time says, holding out the blade.

Sky transforms back, then almost immediately collapses onto the ground.

“Sky?!” Four hovers over him, alarmed. “Quick, someone, get him some water!” Time digs through the copious supplies he’s carrying to hand over a waterskin, which Four wastes no time holding to the Chosen Hero’s lips. “C’mon, drink this, get it together.”

Sky eventually pushes the waterskin away. “I’m fine,” he says, though his voice comes out breathy, like he’s just finished a long battle. “I just don’t do particularly well with dark magic, it seems. It’s left me a little weak.” He closes his eyes for a moment, then tries to shift. “Let me up.”

Four and Twilight help him to his feet. He wavers for a moment, leaning a little more heavily on Twilight’s shoulder than would be natural, before carefully letting go. “It’s good to see everyone,” he says. “Even you, _Wolfie_.”

Twilight winces. “Is _everyone_ going to get on my case about that? I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t think that you’d react well.”

“Of course we wouldn’t,” Sky says. “Dabbling in dark magic?”

“Our smithy did it _just now_ and saved you with it,” Wind points out. “I was mad too, but we should probably give him a pass, just this once.”

“And it wasn’t like it was on purpose in the first place, I got cursed the same as the rest of you,” Twilight defends. “I just learned how to use it. It’s a tool, like anything else.”

Time can see the defensive curl in his shoulders though, and hear the insecurity beneath his words. He understands why his descendent had kept that secret – it’s the whole reason why Time himself pretended ignorance on the matter. But then, he’s always had less of black and white view of such things than many of them.

He also has faith in Sky’s kindness and understanding, however, and the Chosen Hero does not disappoint him. “Of course. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Sky says tiredly. “I just wish you’d trusted us enough to tell us.” He reaches out, and pats Twilight on the shoulder. “I can’t imagine what it would have been like, dealing with such a thing alone. It must have been terrifying. We’re lucky we have your expertise on hand.”

Twilight tries to stutter out a response, fails miserably, and Time takes pity on him by providing a distraction. “I believe this is yours.”

Sky positively lights up at the sight of the Master Sword. “I’d been sick with worry, thank Hylia,” he says, taking the sword with reverence. Time relaxes as it leaves his grasp – he feels immediately lighter, in more ways than one. “Thank you for taking such good care of her.” He seems especially pleased that _Time_ had been the one to do it, as though it perhaps heralds a change in his opinion of the blade.

Time bites his tongue – now is not the moment to vent his feelings on the matter. However complicated his relationship is with the Master Sword, it isn’t productive to bring it up here. “That leaves only the captain, the sorcerer, and the traveller, I believe.”

“We’ve been lucky so far. There’s probably going to be more shadow beasts further in,” Twilight warns. “And we have to kill them all at once, remember, or they’ll just revive their brethren.”

“So that’s what happened,” Sky sighs. “It caught me off guard. I’m embarrassed to say I got completely overwhelmed.”

“Don’t worry about it, it happened to all of us,” Four assures him. “We’re just lucky some of us managed to slip the net.”

“Right. Since the Old Man was…” Sky trails off. Time’s shoulders tense – in all the fuss, the others had forgotten why he and Twilight hadn’t been with the others in the attack, but Sky’s words have suddenly reminded them, and the air becomes abruptly awkward.

He ignores it. As always, discomfort, emotion, apologies – they can all come later, after the crisis is over. “Do you know the way to our missing friends, then?” If they can at least account for all their missing number before an outright confrontation, their odds of success will be dramatically increased.

Sky shakes himself. “I think I can find the way. The place we were in… it was dark. I could only hear Legend’s voice, but I couldn’t figure out a way to respond.” He looks thoughtful. “I wonder how he was able to speak. Magic?”

“He told me he’s been to a Dark World before,” Twilight reports.

“Of course he has,” Sky sighs. “This way, then.”

They shuffle as a group back the way they came. With more of them, the lanterns are spread further apart, so the cavern is even more dim, even more cold, even more uninviting. Anything could be lurking in the shadows, just out of sight. Something almost certainly is.

Two rescued. Three more to go.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feels like I could have done a lot more a lot better with this but it was already way longer than I first intended. I had a lot of fun writing it though, hope you enjoyed it.

In the next cavern they encounter three shadow beasts. This time, the beasts are the ones outnumbered, and they’re taken down in moments. Time doesn’t even have to lift a finger – Twilight, Four, and Wind all leaping into action before he could even draw his sword. He’s getting slow, he muses.

The mineshaft corridors give way to stone once again, as they wind back down into proper ruins, sporadically populated by keese but not much else. Time can’t figure it out. The architecture has the feel of a Temple, though it clearly isn’t one. Sheikah-made, perhaps, but for what purpose? It’s been bothering him. Underground ruins, built by the Sheikah…

The Shadow Temple.

His eye widens, and he pushes to the front of the group. “Stop!”

The group lurches to a halt in confusion. “What is it?” Twilight asks.

“Just wait,” Time requests, digging though his bag for the Lens of Truth. He holds it up, takes a slow breath, then feeds a thread of magic into it.

Spikes on the tiles on the floor ahead bloom into sight like deadly flowers. And more, arrow traps on the walls, and one he suspects will shoot jets of flame. “Traps,” he says. They’d been perilously close to taking Twilight out of commission. He lowers the Lens of Truth, inspecting the suspicious tiles he’d seen. They all seem to have a thin line of runes around their edges – a tell they’d eliminated when it came to the Shadow Temple. Perhaps this predates it.

Cautiously, he approaches one of the ones which hadn’t been spiked, readies his shield just in case, and reaches with the tip of the Biggoron sword, lightly touching the tile. An instant later, four arrows shoot from the walls, converging on that spot at different heights. Even standing so far back, one passes uncomfortably close to Time’s leg.

“What?!” Wind yelps. “When you said traps, I didn’t think you meant _that_.”

Time surveys the tiles before him, and does the same with an unmarked one. Nothing. He presses harder, and still nothing, before he moves to stand his full weight on it. The unmarked tiles are safe, then. Just as well – even with the magic for it, looking through the Lens of Truth constantly gives him a headache. “Don’t touch any tile with markings around the edges,” he warns. “Some of them have invisible spikes, too, so don’t even think you can trigger it on purpose.”

“ _Invisible_ spikes?”

Twilight looks shaken. “There was a lot of traps in the Temple of Time, and Lantern Caverns have a lot of pit holes, but I’ve never seen anything like this in my Hyrule before.”

“It was common in my time,” Time says, putting the Lens of Truth away. “These ruins reminded me of a Temple I’d been in before. A holdover, undiscovered until now, is my best guess.” Who knew what other secrets the Sheikah clan had buried over the years?

It slows their progress, but they pick their way through the corridor carefully, and eventually wind up in what is clearly a dungeon. More and more like the Shadow Temple all the time.

“Hellooooo?” Wind calls. “Anyone there?” The first few cells they pass are empty.

“Kid? Is that you?” Legend’s voice comes from a far cell. “You finally figured out how to talk?”

“Nope! Found something much better,” he says, skipping ahead, and spreads his arms. “The cavalry has arrived!”

The cell alone shouldn’t have held Legend – but when Time arrives with the rest, he can see that he’s inside a smaller cage, one in which he can’t simply slip through the bars. And that he is, in fact, a fluffy pink bunny.

He keeps his expression very carefully neutral.

Four, on the other hand, smothers a laugh, rather poorly.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up, so what. I’m a bunny. Breaking news, the rest of you transformed too.”

“He looks like a pink blupee,” Wild says with a sort of dreamy wonder.

“You keep that crazy cook away from me!” Legend immediately shrieks.

It takes a lot of Time’s effort to stay on task. “Is there a key?” he asks.

“I’ve got it, it was hanging on the wall,” Sky says, moving past to open the cell.

“About time,” Legend grouches. “And get the captain, I don’t think he’s doing well. Then we have to go rescue Traveller straight away. Did any of you bring my Moon Pearl?”

“So bossy,” Twilight grumbles. “And of course, the Old Man’s been carrying an armoury around for you guys, would it kill you to say thanks?”

Time props Legend’s bag and sword by the door, then turns to look for the captain while the rest of them set about breaking Legend out and returning him to normal. Most of the cells are empty, but on second glance, through the dancing shadows caused by lanternlight, he catches sight of something on the floor of the cell across from Legend.

It’s a large dog, with a light-yellow coat of lush fur, and a familiar blue scarf swaddled around his neck. He’s lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious, a manacle fastened to his foreleg.

“Well this makes for unpleasant memories,” Twilight mutters, joining him. He opens the cell, carefully placing the lantern next to what must be Warriors. He inspects the chain and manacle with a hiss. “Looks like this leg is broken.”

Nothing they can do about it, not without potions or fairies. “Can you free him?” It sounds as though the others have managed to break open the cage the next cell over. Wind squeaks something about how soft bunny fur is at his back.

“I can break the chain, but we’re going to have to get our smithy to handle the manacle. We’d better do that first, I don’t want to change him back until that’s fixed. Hey, Smithy! Need you over here.”

Four pops up behind them, and immediately frowns at the sight. “That’s not good. Hold on, let’s see what I can do.”

Time crouches on his other side as he works, looking for any other injuries. Warriors jerks awake when Four taps at the manacle, half a yelp in his throat. Time grabs him, as gently as he dares, before he can snap at anyone. “Hang in there, Captain. You’re safe. We’ll have you back to normal in a moment.”

“This will probably hurt though,” Four says apologetically. “There’s no keyhole, so I have to break it off.”

He gently pats Warrior’s back as the dog lets out a faint whimper. “Do what you must.” It seems to give him some comfort, and Time figures it’s a gesture that wouldn’t be terribly out of place if he were in his normal form, so he keeps up the motion, one arm holding him still and the other patting the fur on his back as Four gets to work.

Their smithy works quickly, at least, and it’s only some short minutes later the manacle drops to the ground. By then, Legend has turned back to normal and the rest of them have joined them, so Sky proffers the Master Sword again and another curse is broken, and Time winds up with an armful of Warriors in his lap.

“Ouch, dammit,” he hisses, cradling his arm gingerly. His face is pale and pinched with pain. “I don’t suppose anyone has a potion handy?”

“It will be the first thing we seek out, as soon as we rescue Traveller and get out of here,” Time promises, helping him sit up. Bad luck Hyrule is the last one for them to find. “Any other injuries?” His eyes are tracking well, so Time hopes he was unconscious only due to the pain and not any head injuries.

“I think I’ve got a sprained ankle, too,” he admits. “Fantastic. Help me up, Old Man.”

They get to their feet, Warriors wincing as he carefully sets his weight down on his right foot. “That’s sprained alright. I can walk on it, but I’m not going to be fighting at my best, if at all.” He sighs at his arm.

“You can join me in lantern-holding duty,” Wild suggests glumly.

“We’ll make you a sling for now,” Time decides. That way he’ll have at least one hand free to defend himself, if it comes to it.

As Time sets about tying a sling with some spare bandages, Twilight takes it upon himself to distract him. “So… not a wolf, but a _dog_ ,” he remarks with a grin. “Does this mean all those comments about your love life-”

“Don’t you even start,” Warriors stresses. “Have a little pity on the injured here, would you?”

It does make a degree of sense. Warriors has more in common with him and Twilight than the others, but he is very much a man of civilisation, and far more comfortable working in groups than going it alone. The real mystery is Legend, but given Twilight hasn’t deigned to comment on _that_ , Time figures there’s a reason. Another one of those invisible lines that they’re all careful not to cross.

“I was a seagull!” Wind tells him excitedly. He’s taken the whole distressing affair with a sense of adventure that is genuinely helping morale. “And our smithy was a mouse! It was so cool, he’s so small he could just walk right across this tiny ledge to get the key on the-”

“If we’re done here, we need to get after Traveller,” Legend interrupts. “And we need to go _now_.”

“What form is he in, then?” Wild asks.

Legend lets out a hiss between his teeth, then admits, “He turned into a fairy.”

The group as a whole recoils at that. “A _fairy_? Are you sure?” Sky demands.

“It explains his healing magic, I guess,” Four muses.

Legend huffs impatiently. “I don’t know why, exactly, he’s always been able to do it! The curse couldn’t affect him, but it knocked him around enough he had no choice but to transform. But that’s why we gotta go _now_. You know what kind of things beings from a dark world can do with fairy blood?”

Time ties off the sling around the captain’s neck, adjusting his scarf to make it more comfortable. “Let’s be on our way then.” He presses the Fire Rod into his good hand. “This should be easier to use than a sword, should it come to it.”

“Is that Traveller’s stuff?” Legend asks, spying the bag and sword still on Time’s side. “Give it here, Old Man. Stop showing off by carrying all that while you’re wearing armour.”

Time hands it off without a fuss. Hyrule’s gear is far less of a burden than the rest of it had been, but now that there are others to carry the weight, he’s certainly not going to fight them on it.

Without any clear idea of where the shadows beasts have taken Hyrule, though, they’re back to simply exploring. Warriors and Wild both being injured slows them down noticeably – something Time is far more aware of now he’s freed of his own burdens. Legend gets crankier and crankier as each path they try leads to another dead end. They come across another trio of shadow beasts who are dealt with in moments. With only two lanterns, and two of their number injured, they can’t even risk splitting up to make the search faster.

“It has to be this one,” Twilight says, as they return to the second cavern. “We’ve tried all the others.” The corridor ends in stairs disappearing into darkness. The lanternlight doesn’t reach the bottom.

“What are we waiting for then?” Legend snaps.

“Hold on a second, I need to…” The lantern flickers, then the flame dies away, taking its comforting glow with it. Twilight groans. “That’s what I was worried about. It’s out of oil, and I don’t have any more.”

One lantern, Time amends. And the circle of light provided by Four’s lantern is barely enough for the eight of them, never mind seeing much beyond it. It’ll prove hazardous if there’s more traps to avoid.

“Shit, I can’t believe I forgot. Hold up.” Legend goes rifling through his enchanted bag, and pulls out a lantern of his own. “It runs on magic, so…”

“Of _course_ you also have a magic lantern,” Twilight sighs. “I don’t know why I’m ever surprised anymore.”

“Hand it over, then,” Warriors says. “I’m not good for much else, right now. And we know the farm boy barely has a lick of magic.”

“Screw you, your magic didn’t stop you getting injured, did it?” Twilight retorts, though his tone is light. The banter eases the tension a fraction.

“Lantern buddies,” Wild says, waving Four’s lantern in solidarity. “Even though I’m fine. The Old Man won’t let me do _anything_.”

“You keep saying that, but you know all of us can see the bandage on your head, right?” Warriors asks.

The chatter drops off as they head down the narrow corridor, with Wild leading the way with the lantern and Warriors limping at the rear. Time is walking in the middle of the pack, and the light from either doesn’t even reach him – he instead focuses on the bobbing orange circle he can see illuminating the way ahead of him, ears strained for trouble. None of them are comfortable in the dark. All too often horrors lay concealed in the shadows.

It seems they travel downward for an age, until once again the wood and earth of an old mineshaft is replaced with crumbling marble and tile. “Watch for traps,” Time warns.

No one replies, but their pace drops even slower.

“Something stinks,” Legend mutters into the silence. “I don’t like this.”

“It smells like corruption,” Wild murmurs.

The air is stagnant and cold, and hangs heavy with the taint of dark magic. The sense of it grows stronger with every step. Something is waiting for them. Some dark magic is being wrought right under their noses.

Then they finally reach the bottom, and it’s so much worse than he guessed.

The cavern is enormous, larger even than the one they found Sky in. The walls are lit by torches that burn with an eerie blue flame. A strange mist cloaks the room, grey and swirling. The floor is a minefield of marked tiles - traps, so thick that you could barely walk between them. A stone altar looms in the center. The gold-faced shadow beast is there, with two of its underlings. A fairy – Hyrule – is captured in a crystal bottle there, in the middle of an elaborate circle of runes.

Around them stand five wispy silhouettes. Hylian. All carrying swords and shields.

It’s different, but Time recognises this magic. One for each of the imprisoned. They’re still nothing more than shades – though that alone is plenty dangerous – but he doesn’t need Legend’s expertise to guess that this ritual is to give them power, give them permanence. To turn them from phantoms captured from reflections into something _more_.

Their presence, this ritual, gives them a clue as to who might be pulling the strings. Who their final foe in this strange adventure might be.

“Traveller!” Legend calls, dashing forward with his sword drawn. “We’re comin- uurk!”

“There’s _traps_!” Time warns, half a second too late.

It doesn’t even matter, because as soon as Legend enters the mist, his sword clatters to the ground. Bounding back out of it a moment later comes a pink bunny. “This mist is cursed!” he yelps. “This is the same magic as what forced us all to transform!”

Rushing to Hyrule’s rescue is suddenly much, much harder.

“I could blow it away?” Wind ventures. “With my Deku Leaf?”

“We’re in a cave,” Warriors says. “It wouldn’t have anywhere to go. Would just come back around to us.”

This is a problem. With Warriors injured, only he and Twilight have forms that can truly fight – and Sky, perhaps, if the curse didn’t leave him too weak and they weren’t stuck inside a _cave_. So, only him and Twilight.

Wolves might be able to defeat those shadow beasts, but they won’t be any good against dark reflections.

No way to get across without passing through the mist. And whoever manages will have to deal with both the shades and the shadow beasts.

Then the gold-faced shadow beast is lifting a dagger into the air, and they can’t wait any longer.

“No!” Legend shouts in terror.

Time reaches out to Wind, pulling his sword from his grasp. “Sorry, I need to borrow this,” he murmurs, and Wind lets go with a surprised blink as the Hero of Time strides forward.

It’s an instinctive thing, as he holds the sword, reaches deep into his magic, deeper than he has for a long time, and begins to hum the inverted song of time.

The hourglass on the sword begins to shine, and everything _stops_.

The world has turned shades of grey, locked in place. Even his companions are frozen, eyes wide, breath still. Magic altered with a song and the strength of the Triforce of Courage, and Wind’s sword has done what the ocarina alone couldn’t quite do.

It won’t last for long. But it only needs to last long enough for him to get to Hyrule.

Time is fought over by Gods. And for once, that has a use.

He reaches into his bag, and pulls out a mask. His fingers tremble for only a moment before he slides it over his face.

The transformation is as agonising as ever, even with his body so much closer in proportion to the Deity’s form, as the god’s power greedily forces its way into a mortal vessel. The mask fuses to his skin like it’s made of thorns, and his hand _burns_ in protest, then strength is flowing through his veins like liquid lightning. Reality distorts, and the enormous helix sword rests in his grasp.

The Fierce Deity walks into the mist, time frozen to a standstill around him.

The curse pulls at him, tears at him, like fingers of darkness raking nails across his skin, but that’s all it can do. It’s much stronger magic, much _darker_ magic, wrapping his form now. And the Fierce Deity does not like to share.

Time sets a clock in his head, and sends it ticking.

He hurries forward, steps quick and light. He only has moments, until the trick he pulled with the Phantom Sword runs out.

He only _needs_ moments. He arrives at the altar, weaving between the eerily still shades and shadow beasts. The dagger is frozen mid-swing, halfway to shattering the crystal prison Hyrule is trapped in and pinning him like a butterfly.

Not even the Fierce Deity’s strength can shift an object frozen in time, but then, he only needs to wait a few seconds more. His hand curls around the crystal jar. He lets out a breath.

Colour snaps back into the world. Time flings the jar free, sending it flying back towards the others. The dagger strikes the altar, empty of prey.

The shadow beast shrieks in rage.

The clock ticks.

Time attacks.

It’s strong. It’s an order of magnitude stronger than the other shadow beasts, but compared to the Fierce Deity? Even Majora had crumpled like a deku scrub before his strength.

He throws two blade beams – savage discs of power lancing off the helix sword that tear through the shadow beast. He follows up with his sword, three precise, powerful strikes, and then finally one last blade beam, point blank to the chest.

The gold-faced leader collapses. Quickly, before they can revive it, he spins, the helix sword cleaving through the other two shadow beasts in one swipe. Almost immediately, the mist begins to thin around him - the magic losing potency with the monsters’ deaths.

The clock ticks.

The shades begin to move.

He turns, watching them, sword at the ready. The ritual didn’t complete, but they’re still dangerous. An enemy he’s only fought once, and now there are five of them.

Normally, he couldn’t do it. But like this…

The clock ticks.

One of the shades strikes. It’s fast. He deflects the blade, then another is there, sword scoring against left shoulder pauldron, slicing at his neck. He ducks away, throwing another blade beam, but the shade dodges it at the last second.

His foot hits a trap. Two of the arrows deflect off his armour. The third tears through his arm.

The pain is distant, but noted. A trifle to the Fierce Deity.

The clock ticks.

The shades are back upon him in an instant, a flurry of steel seeking every gap in his armour, every exposed patch of skin, swords flashing blue in the eerie firelight. He trades blows with one, hitting once, twice, until with sheer force he drives the shade’s shield aside. The Helix Sword tears through its shadowy form, and it dissolves into smoke. Four shades, now. He swings, and one jumps, light as a feather, landing on his sword, ready for an overhead strike.

He leaps back, reflexively, without looking, and his foot catches. He spares a glance at it.

A spike, visible only thanks to the blood coating its tip.

He tears his foot free, catching a strike from another shade and throwing it off. He still needs to fight, the others still need _his_ strength-

The clock ticks, and _time is up_.

Time’s fingers catch in edge of his face, and _pull_.

The mask doesn’t want to let go. It clings to his skin, anchored, but Time braces himself, a scream in his throat as he _rips_ it away. The Deity howls in his mind, a storm of fury and jealousy and possessiveness that sends his vision white, before finally fading back to silence as the mask becomes inert once more.

He can wear the mask less and less every time. And the instant he hesitates, the instant he’s tempted to leave it just a little longer, the instant he thinks that strength is _his_ … It’s too dangerous to be borne. He shouldn’t have done it. Even thirty seconds is too risky now.

He gasps. His lungs can’t seem to get enough air. The mist swirls around him, but it’s nothing more than mist now. The Helix sword vanishes, and he’s holding the Phantom Sword instead once more. The pain, once distant, strikes him full force. His arm is hot with blood. The cut on the side of his neck flares, as though reminding him of its existence. His foot shrieks with agony, until his leg trembles with the effort of staying upright. And the marks on his face burn, and burn, and burn.

And there are still four shades to deal with.

They close in. He raises the sword. His gaze sweeps the floor. He’s surrounded by traps.

His magic is nearly dry – his trick with Wind’s sword having consumed more than he’s used in years, and the power poured into each blade beam is significant. But there’s still four shades, and he can’t move, can’t dodge, without triggering another trap-

He doesn’t even mean to do it. He’s already rescued Hyrule – what happens to him now hardly matters. But it’s been on his mind all day, and with that split second of hesitation, the slightest tug on his exhausted magic… and instead of Din’s Fire, Nayru’s Love shimmers around him.

The shade’s sword bounces off the shield with a ring. Time takes the opening, and drives the Phantom Sword into its chest.

He lets it go, lets the shade stagger back with the blade embedded – it’s done for. His arm protests, but he draws the Biggoron sword. Three shades left. He goes to turn, and staggers a step. Hits a trap, but the arrows ping harmlessly off blue crystal.

“Old Man!” A voice calls for him, shrill and frightened. Twilight?

Then the others are there, suddenly. There’s a blast of fire that consumes the shade he’d been about to fight. A flash of steel – Twilight, caught in a game of mirror parries with another shade, but Four comes from behind while it’s occupied, and stabs it in the back. The shades can’t defend against so many of them at once, and the last one falls under a dogpile as Sky and Legend and Hyrule and Wind all leapt at it at once.

They’re done. They’re safe. They’re all safe.

Time collapses to his knees, strength spent. His throat is closed. And he’s still surrounded by blue crystal.

“Old Man, what the hell was all that?” They all gather around him. Legend hisses. “Shit, what happened to his face? That’s a lot of blood.”

“He needs a potion,” Warriors says, who in Time’s opinion should be worrying about himself first, hobbling up to them like that.

“We’ve been over this! We don’t have any potions!” There’s an edge of panic to Twilight’s voice. Time tries to summon the strength to tell him not to worry, but his voice seems trapped. All he can seem to focus on is the glittering crystal.

“Traveller, can you heal him? Even just a bit?”

Hyrule, back to normal, crouches outside of the crystal and reaches towards him. “I can’t, my magic won’t go through.”

Nothing goes through. Nothing short of Ganon’s power.

“Old Man, drop the shield,” Legend orders. “You did it, okay? It’s safe now. We got the last of them.”

Time shakes his head.

“No, really. We’re all here, no one’s even cursed anymore. The kid’s not even mad that you stole his sword.”

“Mad? That was incredible! He needs to tell me how he did it without a Phantom Sphere!”

“Yeah yeah, he can tell you _after_ he’s dropped his fancy magic shield and Traveller’s healed him.”

“He can’t,” Twilight murmurs. “That’s… Old Man, why did you do it? You told me-”

He finally finds his voice. “Didn’t mean to,” he croaks. “Didn’t want to.” Never wanted them to know, truly. It was hard enough telling Twilight, but at least that was only words, at least it was abstract to him. He never wanted any of them to see for themselves exactly what he was afraid of.

Legend pauses. He’s sharp – Time can see him connecting the dots behind his eyes. Say what they might about the Hero of Legend, but he is reliable when faced with a crisis, and his tone turns serious. “You weren’t exaggerating, huh? What are the rules? Keeps magic out, weapons out…” He reaches towards him, and presses a cautious hand against the crystal shield. “I saw you kill one of those bastards after it cast though.”

“Objects can pass through,” Time forces himself to explain. “Nothing moving or magic. But I can pick up things off the ground. And anything can pass from inside.” For what little good it does him. The crystal is larger than his reach - if he stretches his arm out, his fingers fall just shy of the edge at its closest point.

“What about your magic?” Legend asks. “Anything you can cast? What was it… Farore’s Wind?”

Time shakes his head.

“What if we give you a green potion?” Hyrule suggests. “We don’t have any red potions, but we should have a green potion still, right?”

“No. It’s not that. It’s that I can’t use any other magic when it’s up.”

Legend sighs. “It’s like the Cane of Byrna in that respect, then. What a pain.” He bites his thumb, glaring at the shield as though with sight alone he could unravel it.

“Can you move?” Hyrule asks. “If we can get out of here…”

Time looks past them, to the staircase they’d come down, then back at his foot, which is still bleeding through the torn boot, even now. He’s feeling lightheaded. He probably ought to bandage his injuries before he passes out. “I don’t think so, no,” he says carefully.

“I can carry-” Twilight’s hand hits the crystal barrier though, and his voice cuts off with it. The others have all gone terribly still, as they realise what Time already knows. That there is no helping him walk when Nayru’s Love is active. They could be standing right there next to him, but they might as well be on the other side of an abyss.

“Old Man,” Legend asks, voice pitched low enough that no one beyond Twilight should be able to hear him. “How long? At a guess?”

He lets out a breath. “…Last time it was three days.”

There’s real fear on Legend’s face now. Time closes his eye. He doesn’t need to see on others what he already feels.

The injuries alone aren’t enough to kill him. He’s trapped here until he’s healed enough to walk, or even crawl, and that’s going to be miserable, but it’s not what he’s scared of. He’s scared that Nayru will never let him out at all, after he dared to offer himself to the Fierce Deity once again. That he’s never going to see the world again without a tint of blue, never going to hold Malon in his arms again, never be able to reach out a hand to any of his boys in trouble.

He wonders how she’d react if he put the mask back on, if the might of Fierce Deity is enough to break the barrier from within. What a choice to be forced to make.

“Then we can’t wait it out,” Legend says, raising his voice for the others. “We need to go get a potion or fairy. Something he can pick up from inside the barrier.”

“We can’t just leave him here alone!” Twilight snaps.

“I wasn’t saying we should!” Legend defends hotly. “Some of us can stay with him. But if we don’t do something, he’ll just be stuck here, until-” He cuts himself off, grinding his teeth.

“But… that could take days.” Wild’s voice sounds so very small in the following silence. “Didn’t you say, Twilight, that the nearest town, and the nearest Spring… they were far, right? Too far, even before we came here.”

“I’ll be fine,” Time interjects, struggling to keep his voice level. “I can wait. Not like anything else can hurt me in here, after all.”

His poor attempt at humour falls flat. Twilight glares at him. “We’re not going to just _leave_ you sitting for days in a pool of your own blood!”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky, find a stray fairy?” Four suggests, but the doubt is writ plain on his face.

Warriors shakes his head. “That’s not as easy as the Old Man makes it look. The only reason we ever have as many fairies on hand as we do is because they never run away from him.”

“A potion, then. We hunt down a chu. There’s bound to be a red one somewhere nearby, right?”

It all sounds like it’s happening so very far away as they bounce ideas off each other. Time stares dully through the sheen of blue. He wants to say something – _should_ say something, that’s his job, his role in this party, to make decisions, to keep them as safe as they could hope to be on such a dangerous quest - but he’s spent his words. He’s tired.

Everything starts to tip sideways.

“Old Man?!” Twilight calls out, alarmed. He bangs a fist on the crystal. It doesn’t budge.

“You hold it together, Old Man,” Legend hisses at him, hands splayed against the barrier. “You have to stay awake, you hear? You gotta be able to pick up the potion we’re going to bring you!”

“He won’t.” Wind’s eyes are wide. “He can’t – he’s already so hurt, how can we-”

It’s all so distant. So removed, on the other side of the endless, endless blue. He thinks he hates the colour, now. Give him the green of the forest, or the red of Malon’s hair.

The others are babbling things at him, but he can’t seem to parse it anymore. It sounds like they’re all underwater.

“Stand aside,” Sky says, voice cutting through the panic like steel.

The last thing Time sees before it all goes dark is the Chosen Hero drawing the Master Sword.

* * *

  
Time comes to with Hyrule crouching over him, the glow of healing magic bright around his hands.

The barrier is gone.

“How-” he murmurs.

Hyrule blinks. “He’s awake!”

“Old Man!” Twilight is there in an instant. He reaches out, running a careful hand along the side of his face, as though to reassure him that he _can_. There’s tear tracks on his face again, but it’s confusing, as Time is fairly sure there’s no song to blame. “Don’t worry. You’re okay. You’re… you’re okay.” His fingers pause near his left ear – the mirror to the marks on the right side of his face. The skin is still stinging there, the familiar feeling of wounds freshly healed.

“How long was I-”

“Only a few minutes,” Legend grunts, then answers the question he’s _really_ asking. “Our Chosen Hero had the bright idea that maybe we could _break_ the shield, with the right tool.”

Time’s gaze skips to Sky, who is standing nearby, gingerly holding the Master Sword. His gloves are burnt to charcoal.

“Your hands?” he croaks.

Sky grimaces, then covers it up by sheathing the sword and quickly hiding his hands behind his back. “She doesn’t like be raised against any of us.” Not even for friendly sparring, Time recalls. “It’s fine, really. They’re only a little burned.”

“I’ll deal with that once I’m done here,” Hyrule promises.

He doesn’t want to be grateful to that blade. But it seems today he has little choice. “Thank you,” he says, and means it wholeheartedly.

Sky just smiles at him, a little sadly.

Time lets his attention drift back to Hyrule. He’s feeling better already. “That’s enough,” he tells him. “I’d rather you help the others.”

Warriors huffs. “Let him decide when he’s done. You really scared us this time, Old Man. Leave the crazy heroics to us younger ones, alright?”

He does it specifically _because_ he doesn’t want any more burdens placed on them. He so terribly wants them all to live at least as long as he has, hopefully longer. They’ve only fought together for such a short time, but he can’t bear the thought of losing any of them. Otherwise he never would have risked using the mask, never would have put himself in this situation in the first place.

He suspects none of them will appreciate that though, so Time stays silent, and stares at the ceiling as Hyrule works and Twilight hovers. Hyrule ends up drinking every drop of green potion they have to heal him, Warriors, Sky, and Wild as much as he can. It’s enough that all of them will be able to walk easily, and fight if necessary.

“Thank you,” Time says again, as he flexes his foot. There’s nothing more than a faint twinge of pain at the motion.

Hyrule ducks his head. “I’m the one who should be thankful. I thought I was a goner, and then suddenly, you were right there. The least I can do is heal the injuries you got saving me.”

“Still, I think that settles who has the best magic,” Twilight remarks, ruffling Hyrule’s fluffy mop of hair.

“And I think we’re going to disqualify the Old Man from _any_ magic competitions from now on,” Legend adds. “He’s terrible. Overpowered to the point of being dangerous. Basically useless.”

“I _did_ say as much,” Time points out.

“ _Cyclones_ ,” Wind reminds them.

Warriors slaps him upside the back of his head. “You’re only saying that because you haven’t had Traveller save your life in the past week.”

“Save it until we’re out of this place,” Four says. “I think I’ve had more than enough of caves _and_ magic for the time being.”

They all amble back through the dark caverns – the shadows far less oppressive now all nine of them are together again. There’s an air of tangible relief among the party, a current of nervous energy that’s released in chatter and movement. Time however is still moving slowly – for all of Hyrule’s healing prowess, he _has_ lost a lot of blood, and he’s exhausted from more than just magic overuse.

Legend hangs back, surprisingly – waving a reluctant Twilight on with a pointed flick of his fingers, and falls into step beside him. “Hey.”

He’s on his blind side, so Time turns to glance at him. The sorcerer fidgets for a moment, spinning one of the rings on his fingers restlessly, face pinched. He looks away, but mutters, “Sorry, for pushing. Before all this. We’ve all got monsters under our beds. I just… forgot. That you have them too.”

Time turns forward, and doesn’t say anything for a moment, before settling on, “It’s fine. You weren’t to know.” Such a straightforward apology, from Legend of all people, is more than he ever expected – or needed. He’d been prepared to drop it, honestly, to let the trespass over that invisible line lay unacknowledged.

“You’re just so composed all the time. I didn’t think much past beyond seeing you react to something.” He shuffles his feet. Somehow even the motion sounds sour. “Hell, just now you were sitting there bleeding from half a dozen places trapped in some bullshit magic barrier and still telling us you were _fine_ and you were just gonna _wait_ until you finally passed out. You know how bad we all panicked when that happened? I think we’d all started to think you were invincible.” He pauses, then adds, “Well, except for the farm boy. _He_ seems to think you’re made of glass.”

Time winces. He really would have been fine, physically at least – he’d passed out from exhaustion far more than his injuries, but he can understand how it must have looked to them. “I understand. The apology is unnecessary but… appreciated.”

“Right. Good.” They walk in silence for a moment. Then, “One more thing. That mask.”

“I won’t use it again,” Time replies. “Don’t ask me to explain.” This time, he draws the line clearly, so there can be no further mistakes.

“I’ll hold you to that.” He glances at him. “You’ve got a new mark on your face, you know. We thought it was just missing skin at first, but after Traveller healed it…”

His fingers drift to the side of his face – where Twilight had touched it earlier. It makes sense, now. It’s unsettling, but no better warning to never try that mask again. He’s fortunate, he knows, that he could even wear it at all and not be consumed by it. It’s a gamble with ever worsening odds, every time he puts it on. “I’m aware that my actions were risky. I got lucky.”

“Tch.” Legend kicks at the floor in front of him, then very carefully side steps a trap. They’re almost back to the mine parts of the Lantern Cavern, now. “It’s not just luck, Old Man.”

Time’s gaze drifts to Sky, with the Master Sword on his back, and his gloves in tatters. To Hyrule, who looks exhausted from all the healing magic but cheerful as Wind enthusiastically details all the parts of the rescue he hadn’t seen. To Twilight, who keeps throwing worried glances over his shoulder to make sure the two of them haven’t fallen behind. “No, I suppose it isn’t.”

It’s a good reminder, he supposes, that as much as he desperately wants to protect all of them, and the lengths he’s willing to go to for it, that they might feel the same about him. It’s a slightly disquieting notion. But the love of his fellow heroes is much more welcome than the favour of Gods.

It seems like in no time at all they’re back in the entrance cavern, where the rope is still hanging in the hole Twilight dug for them. The patch of sky visible beyond is warm and rosy, clouds painted pink by the sunset.

“We’ll have to find somewhere to make camp for the night,” Twilight is saying as Time hauls himself out of the hole. “Even if we’ve dealt with the shadow beasts, off road there’s bound to be stalchildren about. We passed a grotto on our way here – that should do.”

“Then what?” Warriors asks, always thinking of the next step. “Do you think that’s this world’s problem dealt with?”

“Good job, team!” Wind cheers.

“I barely did _anything_ ,” Wild moans. “Everyone else got transformed and all I did was hold a lantern.”

“You helped save Sky with your weird slate,” Four reminds him.

“That’s not what I mean!”

“Do you really _want_ to get hit with that kind of curse?” Warriors asks.

“A little bit, yes. Just this once.”

Sky sighs, shielding his eyes against the sunset as he looks to the horizon. “Hopefully you don’t have the chance, but we likely won’t know for sure until another portal appears.”

“You know, I think we’ve all earned a day off,” Time suggests. He does owe it to them, after all. “Until another threat or portal turns up, why don’t we head to Castle Town?”

“Are you _serious_?” Wind asks, all but vibrating. “ _Yes_! Twilight, what’s your Castle Town like? Does it have markets? What about an auction house? What’s the food like?!”

“What are the _women_ like, more importantly,” Warriors cuts in. “And please tell me there are some proper baths there.”

“Baths, really?” Legend complains. “ _That’s_ what you’re going to focus on? I’m going to a pub, so I can get drunk and forget this whole mess.”

“Look at this guy, who’s barely old enough to drink, acting like he’s a wizened bar hound,” Warriors taunts.

“Not sure you should be calling anyone a _hound_ , you know, considering,” Sky comments with a soft smile.

“Sky! Not you too. You can just… fly off? Whatever it is a hawk does.”

“Unlike some of us, I can’t transform on demand,” Sky retorts wryly.

“Well, I can’t either, exactly,” Twilight explains. “I’ve got an item for that. Although I can change back without it, these days.”

Warriors stops in the middle of the path, and whirls around. He points at Twilight, finger shaking. “You! _You’re Wolfie_!”

Four deadpans. “Did he only just figure it out _now_?”  
  


* * *

OMAKE:

“Shit, where is it?” Twilight tugs on his tunic frantically, then starts rifling through his pouch with increasing urgency.

Sky leans over. “What are you looking for?”

“My shadow crystal! Has anyone seen it?”

Four taps his chin, thinking. “It was like that thing the Master Sword turned that curse into, right? We destroyed all the others, though.”

“Yeah, but I kept mine, except now I can’t find it! I definitely had it when we made camp here…”

“More importantly, has anyone seen our cook lately?” Warriors asks. “I’m starving!”

Twilight pauses in his frantic search. “No way. He _didn’t_.”

“Hey. Hey guys,” Wind calls them over, sounding awed. “You gotta come look.”

They all head over to where Wind is looking through a gap in the trees at the canyon below.

Hyrule gasps. “Is that… a dragon?”

“Wait.” Legend glances back at Twilight, wide-eyed. “Is that _Wild_?”

“He really didn’t like being left out, huh?” Four comments. “Still… a dragon?”

“A hero’s soul, more than ten thousand years in the future, after being raised from the dead?” Time muses, watching the lithe form float gracefully in the air. It’s a small dragon, but no less magnificent for it – scales the blue of the sky, with short, sharp horns of gold. “What a bright light indeed.”

Twilight just sighs. “He does hoard a lot of gemstones…”


End file.
